How the Internet Changed Me, and Probably You.

Can you imagine a life without the internet? Well, if you’re over 28 years old you probably remember the days before logging online and becoming los tin another world for hours on end… The days of actually having to do things to amuse yourself and of having to play outside (oh the horror). I previously wrote about times gone by in a The Struggles Today’s Youth Will Never Know, a kinda tongue in cheek post about how things have changed, including the internet. You generally remember the times before logging online, but do you ever really think about how the internet changed you?

For me the big game changer of the internet was chat rooms (A/S/L, anyone?) – yes I know as kids we were all warned against them, but for me they were amazing. Back when the internet was first around there wasn’t much to do on it, so chat rooms were BIG. Logging in to an AOL chat room and chatting to people of a similar age to me, with the same problems as me, from all over the world made me realise I wasn’t the only teenager feeling angsty and like the world was against me – emo much? There’s a lot to be said of been able to talk to a faceless person online and reveal your woes, AOL chat rooms were like the Twitter of today.

Been able to do and be whatever you want online is what makes Millennials so good at the side hustle. The internet made us all want more, and want to set up our own businesses or side hustles to get just what we want. I have had a few Etsy shops over my time, and in a way that millennial hustle is what makes the best bloggers, that hunger to make what we love our daily grind. I mean just look at YouTubers taking their passion and turning it in to a business, can you imagine trying to upload a 40 minute vlog back in the days of modem dial up internet?! Hell no, you need a top notch TalkTalk Business connection for that.

Chatting to guys was another life changer for me… No, I don’t mean the creepy chat room men. I mean the relationship maker that was MSN Messenger. Yup, MSN wasn’t just used for updating your status to the lyrics of the latest emo song. I actually bagged myself a man on MSN, who’d a thunk it. As most 16/17 year olds I was quite shy when it came to talking to new people. Me and my friend always used to go to a certain club like 4 nights a week (how did I afford that, I can barely afford 2 nights out a month now). Whilst there we met another group and I fancied the pants off one of the guys, we all met up at the club all the time & exchanged MSN names, etc. I got chatting to the guy on there and my confidence grew when chatting to him in real life as we had spoken loads on MSN. Eventually he asked me out and the rest is history, including him as he turned out to be a bit of a f***boy, before they were even a thing.

The internet is something we take for granted now, as we have everything at our fingertips, literally. But I will always remembering it for changing everything for me when it came in to my life in the mid-late 90s. How has the internet changed things for you?

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